


Unhappily Ever After

by smolbunprincess



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Corrupted Steven Universe, Violence, connie is lowkey ready to call the gems and greg out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23344411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolbunprincess/pseuds/smolbunprincess
Summary: The future envisioned had been happy, it had been bright. It was saturated and warm. It was kind, there was songs and there was laughter.There wasn't the smell of burning buildings, a city bathed in purple and clouded by smoke. In their future, there wasn't a large dragonic like creature burning every little bit of their hard work to cinders. Leaving it to ashes, and beneath mighty paws life was extinguished.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 92





	Unhappily Ever After

**Author's Note:**

> Admittedly this is a little rushed, I've had this idea for awhile but no strength to write it. I wanted to get it done before the finale, so I guess I'm just in time?
> 
> Regardless I hope you enjoy!

This was not the future that they had pictured.

The future envisioned had been happy, it had been bright. It was saturated and warm. It was kind, there was songs and there was laughter.

There wasn't the smell of burning buildings, a city bathed in purple and clouded by smoke. In their future, there wasn't a large dragonic like creature burning every little bit of their hard work to cinders. Leaving it to ashes, and beneath mighty paws life was extinguished.

Amidst the frantic shouting of a thousand voices, a sea of orders and a tidal wave of defences one could only wonder.

Where did we go wrong?

\---

Connie tried to ignore the sound of Jasper cheering outside, ecstatic by the sight of the creature burning what she saw as weakness. These things, to her were only holding Steven back. As they crumbled beneath his maw, her love for her Diamond grew stronger.

She turned to the devastated looks of Steven's family. She clenched her fists, shivering as the whole house trembled with Steven's footsteps outside. He wasn't close, he was by Little Homeworld. He was so large, so powerful that it was felt all over Beach City and for miles beyond.

"How could this have happened..?" Pearl whispered, breaking the silence. She stared at her hands, thinking fondly back to the little boy with stars in his eyes and a cheeseburger backpack. "He was doing so well."

"No he wasn't." Bismuth interjected with a sigh, leaning against the counter. She stared at the ceiling, a roar cutting through the air followed by another explosion. "He was scared.."

"He said he was tired." Peridot added, squishing a small cushion in her trembling hands. Another roar, another explosion and another rumble. She took her visor off, rubbing at her eyes.

"Why didn't he say anything?!" Amethyst's voice cracked, wincing as Jasper whooped outside.

"I don't think he knew how to." Connie murmured softly, trying to think about something. A hint, a sign.

She remembered Steven at the skating rink, pushed by Bismuth and subsequently falling face first onto the rink. The moment were they danced as Stevonnie, it was full of cheer but there was something else there. Something slinking in, a crack where the light could shine on an issue.

Connie had so briefly felt something, but it was so minute and diluted by the excitement that she never had enough of a chance to pull it closer. Never able to pull it closer to examine it.

She remembered the proposal, the desire to be Stevonnie forever. Connie remembered how dejected Steven was, how he began to put barricades up. How he smiled and send her on her way with reassurances that everything was okay.

Steven reminded her that studying was important for her, but she knew that he was important to her too. Did he not know of his own worth in her eyes, or did he let it wash away like the flowers?

Connie wanted to be her own person, but as she thought about it she wondered if Steven wanted to be his own person. She remembered him talking, so remorsefully on how he felt everyone was drifting away.

It hits her quite suddenly.

Steven wanted to fuse, because he was so terrified of being alone. He was so used to being what everyone needed to be that now they didn't need him to be anything in particular he was lost. Be what you want was the idea, but how are you supposed to do that when you're entire life you had a purpose? The moment he was able to use his powers, he had a role to fulfil.

It was no wonder Steven was lost.

Steven.. He was like a character plucked straight from a fantasy novel, and she had been taken into his world with open arms. She loved to read such novels, and to be in such a situation had been a dream come true.

However, the endings never conveyed how the protagonists felt. How their journey scarred them, in ways deeper than flesh. Once the final word was printed, the story finished but how did the heroes feel? It was never shown, never explored.

Now, she could see what happened when the heroes ended the journey. Happily ever after was a fairy tale, nothing more and nothing less. An unobtainable dream.

Physical injuries heal, but those dealt to the mental and emotional state of a being was something that never truly faded. Coping mechanisms could be developed, yes. Her mother had told her about that briefly, and Connie had done her own research into it following Steven's first doctor's appointment.

There was ways to continue, but they would always be little reminders of what you went through.

Bottling things up was dangerous.. But turning into a creature capable of levelling mountains with a single breath was terrifying.

"They're going to be blasting the cannons soon." Bismuth noted with a quiet sigh. She stared out the window, another roar fills the air followed with blasts of something. "They're terrified.."

Steven's probably terrified too, Connie realised with a gulp.

Garnet was stoic, arms crossed and not saying a word. Beneath her visor, Connie wondered what kind of turmoil the fusion was in. Did she feel anything over what occurred? Was she trying to keep up a strong facade.

"There was signs, I don't think.. I don't think anyone seen them." Connie murmured, pressing her hands against her face. She exhaled heavily, her entire body shuddering with the action. Greg's hand is on her back, rubbing her shoulder soothingly.

"Don't beat yourself up kiddo." The man assured gently, tired eyes drifting to the beast outside. "There's no way you could've known.."

"I feel like I should have!" She yelled, balling her fists up. "He reached out to me! In his own way, and I didn't realise! I was sure I could read him!"

"No-one could have known. Steven pushed us away." Garnet noted with a quiet sigh.

"He sought us out when he knew were hurting!" Amethyst shouted, and another roar caused the ground to shift. Small knickknacks fell to the ground and broke, others simply scattered.

"We can't heal him.. We need all four Diamond essence, and he's a Diamond!" Pearl whispered and shouted all at once, her agony clear. Her despair and her uncertainty rattled in the air. 

Connie shivered.

"We have to do something!" Connie winced, looking at Lapis as she screamed. Briefly, she could feel something bubbling inside her. Frustration? Anger? Sadness?

They continue, a dance of words around the room. Fear, worry, uncertainty and so much more words that swirl in a way that drowns her.

Connie doesn't think. She moves.

\--

It was to get away from them, from the emotions that were doing nothing but drowning her. Making her want to scream in frustration and from not knowing how to process this. Was she guilty? Did she down Steven in these thoughts and feelings?

Connie remembered the late night calls after the proposal and after the visit to the doctors. Steven's eyes had been heavy with tears he never cried. Yet even in these late night talks, where they poured their souls out to one another she never knew the truth fully.

Yet he never blamed her.

There was a twinkle in his eye he had been missing for so long. She was sure progress was being made, but something must have happened. Something must have snapped it out, and drowned him.

She had gotten closer to Steven. She could see the creature more clearly, and she could see the blood that dripped from his wounds. Around her was chaos, they barely noticed her as gems scrambled to run. Some were running to weapons she couldn't see and some fled far beyond the debris, but she found herself uninterested.

Her gaze remain fixated on Steven.

She doesn't know how to make it better. She does not possess the abilities to heal with a kiss, but she tries. She gets close to an arm, dangerously close. She doesn't notice them scream as she kissed his gigantic wrist.

She guessed the others were looking for her, yet she finds herself in a depressive state and she is lucky. Unlike Steven, she won't change. Maybe that made her unlucky.

His massive head swung to stare down, Connie wondered if those hollow eyes with pinprick pupils could see her. Connie does the only thing she could think of.

She reached up to him.

"Jambuds, Steven. Don't you remember?" She asked tenderly, trying to not shiver as the head became closer and closer. Purple scales replaced where human skin once was, coupled with the exhale of air twinged with smoke and his many horns he was a terrifying sight. His jaws part briefly, pink smoke wafting past her. She can smell dying fauna on his breath, his saliva was acidic and the beans he shot from his mouth obliterated on sight.

He was like Spinel's injector, but alive.

"We promised we'd be there for each other." Connie came closer tenderly, testing how close she could get. If she was going to get blasted, might as well go down trying to talk to him, right?

Though if he was going to, shouldn't he have done it by now.

"I wonder who is doing this now.. Your gem? Your human side? A mix of both?" He exhaled lightly, it doesn't answer her question. "Cane? Is it you?"

Candy and Cane. It had been a joke name they had made for his separate parts when arriving from Homeworld, back when they were still kids but with dwindling stars in their eyes. It had started as a joke, but they never decided on actual names for them so Connie finds herself using those.

Cane was the structure and Candy was what made them sweet.

"You're trying to protect Candy, I know you are." Connie placed a hand on his snout, the scales rough and warm under her hand. He let out a soft growl, but doesn't attack. "Mom said you were reacting to everything like it was a threat, it was hard for you to understand what was and wasn't an issue. Candy being able to feel trauma didn't help you either, and when he got frustrated with you you got frustrated too."

He warbled, a confirmation?

"You need each other. Cane needs Candy to feel, and Candy needs Cane so he doesn't disappear." Connie sighed quietly, drumming her fingers along his snout. "You have each others backs, but neither of you have been able to figure out how to process all of this. How to cope.. How to move on."

Looking into his eyes, Connie could see how the pink pinpricks altered in their size. When he became aggressive, they twitched to a thin light.. But now as she spoke to him as a friend and not an aggressor, they were wide.

"They're hurting you.. Both of you.." Connie whispered. "You said you weren't hurt before, but the scars remain don't they? Like on the scan.. The two of you have been hurting a long time, but you never said a word. Its okay to reach out."

"The gems.. Your family.. They hurt you. They didn't mean to, but that doesn't change the fact they hurt you.." Connie laughed a little. "I guess you became a big lizard because thats how you could cope, huh? I guess I coped a little differently.. Throwing myself into my studies without thinking what I wanted to really do, just needing something I had control over.."

"Both of us.. We never got what we needed.. We both needed someone to help process what happened, but we never got that huh?" She rubbed his snout in an affectionate gesture, and he shut his eyes with a huff. "We have each other no matter what, but we needed something else too. I think, at least. I'm not an expert."

He made a noise.. It sounded like, a laugh? She wasn't sure.

There was another noise, it sounded loudly above them and the ground shook once more. Connie clung to Steven, trembling as rubble began to fall around them. Why were they still firing?! He was docile!

"Can you turn back?" She whispered, looking into his eyes. He rumbled quietly, and the ground rumbled with him. "You need to turn back.. We'll fix this okay? We'll fix it."

Another shudder, more debris. It crashed around them, making the world around them tremble only more. It occurs to her how they see him. They do not see his progress. They do not see that he is coming back to her.

That he sees her. That this will stop.

This violence will only scare him further.

A noise sounded, it screamed through the air. It caused her to shudder, and she saw the shadow above her move. She raised her head in time to see a building beginning to collapse above her.

There was a rush of purple, and everything went black.

\--

She awoke to the sound of screaming, rubble desperately trying to be pulled. She ached, and she could feel a stickiness clinging to her body. When she opened her eyes, everything was dark besides the odd crack of sunlight.

The debris is pushed aside easily, and Connie is greeted to Pearl's alarmed face. The pale gem quickly scooped her into her arms and sighed.

"Why would you go after him?! You know he's unstable! You could have been killed!" She yelled, only managing to make Connie's pounding headache scream in reply. She groaned, letting her head fall against the other's shoulder tiredly.

She scanned the area briefly, finding there was both debris and blood spilled. Little Homeworld was in ruins, smoke rising from obliterated buildings and debris pierced the ground like tombs. The vibrancy had been infected with a deadly purple, and happily ever after was withering away.

"When we got here we saw the blast.. One of the cannons hit Steven and the building." Pearl explained frantically, and Connie found herself just able to keep up. "They didn't know you were there! You shouldn't have been anyway, it is far too dangerous! He's unstable, he isn't in there anymore. There's no way.."

"Where is he..?" She coughed, a pulse of pain making its way through her body. She couldn't see him amongst the rubble, though it had all been moved. None of the remaining bits were large enough for him to be trapped under. Or was it?

She couldn't tell.

"He's gone."

Connie doesn't have the strength to ask if she means corruption, or if Steven had been killed.


End file.
